Aberdeenshire Mobile Livery

20/04/2024

It’s important to remember if we are grazing our horses on short over grazed grass we must must must provide hay!!

20/04/2024

Friday focus…feeding in spring and summer!

I always advise feeding a balancer or vitamin and mineral supplement all through the summer months as the summer grass will not provide a balanced diet and there will be vital nutrients missing. This is where I usually get comments saying that ‘they have never fed in the summer or that they never feed a balancer or vitamin and mineral supplement and that their horse is ok’! They may be ‘ok’, but we know that ensuring our equines have all the nutrients they need is essential for good basic health. A balanced diet with all the vitamins, minerals and trace elements they need is really important to ensure all body systems have what they need to function as they should. It is easier than ever to provide our equines with all their bodies need and to ensure they have balanced diets, so I really do not understand why anyone would not want to!

This also includes the good doing types or overweight horses and ponies! Just because a horse or pony is overweight, it does not mean they do not need nutrients. ‘He’s / she’s fat, they do not need any feed’ is what I hear frequently! This is absolutely not the case at all, they still need vitamins and minerals just like any other horse or pony!

It is even more important if you are soaking hay over the summer and they have no access to grass or are on restricted grazing; you can’t take everything out and put nothing back in! But even with access to grass and with good quality hay, vital nutrients will still be missing, so providing a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement or balancer will bridge that gap and ensure their body is still getting the nourishment needed for overall health and well-being.

28/02/2024

14/01/2024

This!!

02/10/2023

Absolutely true!! we see people strip grazing or restricting horses giving them no choice but to eat short stressed grass, the sugars and nitrates in short grass are just to rich for our horses and cause an array of health issues, we must then substitute with hay as horses need fibre. What happens to a horses stomach when they are grazed of short grass? Because the stomach is never full it becomes a very acidic environment, this can also cause hind gut problems. We need to find ways of reducing sugar intake and increasing fibre whilst also meeting the horses needs to move and socialise.
As we see more and more overweight horses we see people looking for solutions to control weight that are not always ideal. Exercise exercise exercise!! The answer is not locking your horse on a small restricted paddock with short stressed grass!!
Strip graze requires the use of two fences ideally moved twice daily, small areas are not ideal as horses are designed to walk 25 to 30 miles daily, taking away his ability to move won’t help his weight or his mental wellbeing!!

The dangers of paddock grass to our equine friends is not a new subject we are constantly talking about it all over the world due to it’s often catastrophic impact on our domesticated horses .

We talk about the spring and early summer burst of fresh lush grass .
We talk about the autumn flush of lush grass .
We even talk about winter frosts and sunny days with its impact on the grass .

So now it’s a year round problem for so many horses including most of mine .

How can we safely allow our horses to graze in the paddock without the worry of laminitis.

NOT EASY THAT FOR SURE. 😣and trust me I dont always get it right either.

We know that Grass that is shorter than six inches is very problematic and the shorter it is the more dangerous it becomes.

That said even if still fresh and green looking even at six inches and above can be a disaster for many .

Very Short eaten down to stubs grass is FULL of sugars as this is often called stressed grass which they love as it’s so sweet but this is extremely dangerous.

Sunlight , dew and dampness especially at spring and autumn causes this to absorb and replenish its reserves so at the end of a lovely sunny day it’s literally full of sugar and uses this over night to grow .

Early morning grazing is generally safer on this grass but certainly not full safe proof .

Adding to issues as temperatures drops over night to almost freezing or even a few degrees above this allow the grass to hold on to the sugar and not use it so early morning grazing is just as dangerous.

Mind blowing and very difficult to manage a sensitive horse , and even non sensitive types can very suddenly be affected by these spikes in grasses .

So can we help to create safer grazing by allowing the paddocks to grow to maturity before allowing any grazing , and keep moving the area so not allow short stressed grass to become a problem .
Putting in track systems are certainly the way forward and feeding ad lib hays , but again not everyone can afford to keep feeding ad lib hays or indeed it’s been difficult for many finding the right hay for horses all year round .
A combination of both track systems and correct management for the paddocks grasses and plant appropriate species may be a safer option for many .

This management should ensure lower sugars and better diversity fibre management intake plus more chewing time which is more species appropriate on their digestive system.

Any thoughts and are owners out there adapting to this practice.

Photo of one of my mature winter grass fields on the right that’s been left all summer to grow to full maturity ( verses a young lush area of growing unsafe autumn grass . 👇

15/08/2023